Mumbai: Manipuri woman jailed after being molested, beaten up

A Manipuri woman, who was molested and assaulted in Kalina, Santacruz, Mumbai was jailed after the police registered a cross-FIR against her, a daily reported.

According to a Mid-day report, the victim has been lodged in Byculla prison while the two attackers have been sent to police custody.

The daily quoted the police as saying that the woman - a Kalina resident who works in a hotel - and her friend Niggreen Jermick were returning from a birthday party when three men passed lewd comments at them. They also hurled racial slurs at the duo.

Jermick got into an altercation and was allegedly beaten up by the three men. When the woman tried to intervene, the men allegedly assaulted and molested her.

The woman escaped and went back to the house where the birthday party was still on. Three of her friends accompanied her back to the spot where another scuffle ensued with the men.

The police was called to the spot. Jermick, the woman, their three friends and two of the attackers - Sudarshan Gaikwad (46) and Deepak Gandhelaa (25) - were taken into custody. A third attacker managed to escape.

Based on Jermick's complaint, an FIR was filed against Gaikwad, Gandhelaa and their aide under sections 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 354 (outraging a woman's modesty) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.

The Manipuri woman and her female friends were charged under Section 323 of the IPC and were sent to judicial custody.